Secret servers

First there was a text message, then a web movie. Next came the emails, radio spots and video footage of hackers being arrested. The plot is thickening for participants of DeltaOneZero, a new "reality" role-playing game that immerses people in a spy-world adventure by sending clues using everyday media.

The game combines a cold-war movie plot with email, SMS and the odd media stunt thrown in. To complete the mission, the clue has to be deciphered and the answer sent by text message. If the answer is wrong, the participant is eliminated.

And the plot? Dylan is a secret agent and the players have stumbled on the messages that were intended for his eyes only. Now they know too much and he can't let them go. This also sounds familiar - and it's meant to, says co-creator Jeff Taylor.

"It's a genre that's popular. We didn't want to appeal to die hard computer game players ... and because the medium is new to people, we thought the narrative should be quite predictable," Taylor says.

Taylor and fellow organiser Troy Benton created DeltaOneZero to see how many 20-somethings they could involve in a reality-style event. The result was 20,000 people in Sydney and Melbourne registered before the deadline last month. The players are now facing a series of "missions".

"We have compared it to a film," Taylor says. "When a film starts, you don't know much about the characters. The players are role-playing and they find out more about their role in the story as it goes along.

"We tell people to observe their surroundings. We will have warned you to watch a particular [television] station at a certain time. We've even staged and filmed a group of criminals being busted by the police."

Ultimately, a process of elimination will determine the winner, or winners. Some players have formed groups and clans to decipher the clues. It is possible for a group to win as the prize is a trip for three.

"It will be interesting to see if alliances form and fall apart," says Taylor, who sees shades of the TV show Big Brother in the game. He even considered filming the DeltaOneZero, possibly for a reality show.

The role-play adventure is being sponsored by Telstra and Nokia, which are both interested in anything that promotes mobile gaming.

"Telstra is the main sponsor. They provide the technology backbone, the SMS and the email and internet. It all goes through their network," Taylor says.

However, this is not the first time such a concept has incorporated "real world" clues. Electronic Arts ran a game called Majestic along similar lines until last year. And movie buffs may remember Michael Douglas playing along in a death-defying psychological thriller in 1997's The Game.

"We think this is the first time in Australia that so many different elements have been incorporated into one game - there's TV, print, mobile and email," Taylor says.

Combining these different technologies, and timing the various clues, have not been easy. Neither has the task of managing player expectations.

The players are prohibited under the terms and conditions of DeltaOneZero from talking to the media without consent. And they are also forbidden to express a negative view of the game and its organisers.

However, there is certainly plenty of chatter on the game's bulletin boards, where participants not only dissect the clues, but the mechanisms behind their delivery.

Most complaints have concerned the text messages. For instance, some text messages advising players to listen out for a radio clue, didn't make it to Orange and 3 network customers. Taylor says he does not know what caused the problem but DeltaOneZero will not penalise those affected for missing that particular clue.

"We know some messages didn't get through. Once we have sent them, they are out of our control," Taylor says. "It's a leap of faith.

"As we pick up issues, we may divert clues [to another delivery method] to ensure no one is disadvantaged. There's always isolated instances of SMS failing but we haven't logged anything with the other networks."